Interview with a me.

Byebye 2009. The year of a thousand weddings has concluded. I'd like a nap now.
The survey below comes from a great blog: Sundrymourning.com I adore her writing and she continues to inspire me even though we have so little in common. Almost especially because we now have so little in common. Answers are mine, go to her blog to see hers (and get addicted!)

1. What did you do in 2009 that you’d never done before?
-I took a young toddler to the butterfly pavilion. Loved it loved it loved it.
-Also started facebooking
2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?


-I don’t do new year resolutions. I’m not that good at following through but here’s the list of things I want done:
A) finish book
B) go on “too late to call it a” honeymoon
C) stay employed
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?


-No, but several people will be having babies in the next few months. 2010 will be a big year for babies, methinks, considering all the weddings we’ve been to!
4. Did anyone close to you die?


-No, but I wrestle with other losses from previous, still recent years.
5. What countries did you visit?


-I stayed in the one I’m from, nursing my ever-maturing national pride. It has been quite a privilege to work with people from other countries: South Africa, New Zealand, England.
-Next year, or in the coming years, countries I’d like to visit include: Norway, Iceland, Austria**, Poland**, Thailand*, New Zealand*, Australia*, Spain*, Greece* and England*. (The * means I haven’t been there before. The ** means I was there very, very briefly in the nineties and I don’t really count it as having been there.)
-As for states I’d like to go to (or back to, in some cases), the top of the list starts with: Tennessee, Maine, California, Washington, Pennsylvania…
6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
-Memories of a “first vacation” as a married couple, aka honeymoon.
-Finished wedding scrap book
-Finished book with a clear “the end” on it and maybe even a first pass-though with edits and revisions. Just a few chapters away now...
7. What dates from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
-I’m not so good with dates. I have no idea the exact date I met my husband, the night of our first evening together, the first time he spent the night, the first time I met his parents, the first time he met mine… I remember all of it and yet none of it. Does that make sense? I’m not an anniversary hound and thus I’m not a huge date-nazi demanding flowers on the 43rd of every Thnarch. I will however always remember how filled with warmth and hope and faith in humanity I was on the day Obama was officially installed as President of the United States. Mega cool. Turbo cool. Uber awesomeness.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?


-Almost finishing my book for Nanowrimo.
9. What was your biggest failure?
-Almost finishing my book for Nanowrimo.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
-got some colds, there was that food poisoning incident about which I still do not speak. Injuries? I stubbed the hell out of my toe, keep getting bruises on my thigh from this desk…
11. What was the best thing you bought?
-I was unemployed for 4 months in 2009, so I didn’t have a lot of loose funds to throw around. The BEST thing that came into our house though, has to be the new bedroom furniture. Through that, we got to give our neighbors the antique furniture we were replacing. It worked out well for us all – since the old set was still in pristine condition but just didn’t suit our style AND suited my neighbors right down to the ground.
12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
-My countrymen, who voted for and peaceably installed a new president with hearts full of hope instead of depraved panic.
13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
-I’m a little sore at the nobel prize committee, because even though I get why Obama got the prize, it was just too soon. Way to thundersteal, assholes. Later on when he really deserves it, there will be no thunderclap of “so there” to galvanize the experience. It’s still an honor, to be sure, it was just far far far far far too soon.
-Also the 2012 hysteria pisses me right the hell off. Also bailout-bank executives insisting on six figure bonuses for their top honchoes. Screw you guys. I know it’s something you “can” do, I just wish you would have gotten together to decide that it was something you didn’t WANT to do because of how that money could go to other causes in a time of national financial distress and acute local need. Screw you in a hat.
14. Where did most of your money go?
-the mortgage, by a giant, Pac-man’s-mouth-is-essentially-closed portion of the pie.
15. What did you get really excited about?
-New job. Mutliple weddings. Numerous car trips to Wisconsin. Obama-rama. Colbert nation getting involved in the Olympics.
16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
-Probably Lady Gaga’s Bad Romance. Great video. Go see it. No really, she’s actually good lookin’ in that one. She has her natural hair in it and these super disarmingly Anime-style eyes. Love those huge eyeballs.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

– happier or sadder? Stronger
– thinner or fatter? Softer
– richer or poorer? Smarter
18. What do you wish you’d done more of?


-Spend more time around my nieces
19. What do you wish you’d done less of?


-Gossiping
20. How did you spend Christmas?


-In Wisconsin with my husband’s family and friends, and thereby mine, too. I adore every single last one of you.
21. Did you fall in love in 2009?
-It kind of feels like I do every day. It’s a song, or a smell, or a scene on tv, or something pretty, or something small, or a conversation, and when all of that fails, it’s having the kitty fall asleep on my chest. I fall in love all the time. Proably a good portion of why I’m such a freakin’ emotional see-saw anymore. Not sure if I’d change that about myself though. One pill can make the bad stuff go away, but I’m so scared it would take away all that good stuff too.
22. What was your favorite TV program?


-Castle, Big Bang Theory, Battlestar Galactica, Dr Who. And of course, Ghost Hunters. The episode with the shadow going across the doorway? Holy buckets. Just… holy buckets. Game changer.
23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?


-hate is such a strong word, but if I could apply it I would apply it to people who are deliberately trying to incite panic and violence when they know there is otherwise no cause for it. The 2012 hysteria comes to mind. Racists, bigots, warmongers and malcontents… if I were to acknowledge that I felt hate, real, true hate, it would be directed at the slimy, spineless refuse crawling around in that bucket there.
24. What was the best book you read?
-World War Z. Max Brooks. (books on tape counts for this, right?)
25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

-The woosh-fizzy sound salt makes when it’s dumped by the teaspoonful into almost boiling water. Never listened to it much before but now suddenly it’s like a silly little breath of the divine. Have listened to a lot more Flogging Molly this year too.
26. What did you want and get?
- Hired
27. What did you want and not get?
-A start on a career in IT.
28. What was your favorite film of this year?
-Favorites: The new star trek movie and Dr Horrible’s Sing Along Blog. Then Marebito, and probably Avatar. For this year’s releases.
-Also-ran films we saw which merit mention: Drag me to hell, Sherlock Holmes, Wall-E,
29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
- Drove home from my very own Father in Law’s wedding. I was a little younger than I am now. About, what, six-ish months?
30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
- Getting a job in IT. Even a “broom-pushing” one directing helpdesk calls.
31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
-“this is clean, isn’t it? Isn’t it?”
32. What kept you sane?


-After work naps on the couch. Writing.
33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
- Nathan Fillion.
34. What political issue stirred you the most?


-Universal Health Care.
35. Who did you miss?


-Still having a very hard time dealing with the death of my parents’ cat in 2008.
36. Who was the best new person you met?


Nikki’s Husband, Pete. Also Jami, with whom I sat at the wedding in the spring. Both are tied for how fascinating they are, how intelligent and charming and funny and amazing and infatuating.
37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009.


-I will always want to help everyone all the time. Just because I can’t, doesn’t mean I don’t still want to.
38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.


If we are here not to do
What you and I want to do
And get forever crazy with it
Why the hell we are even here? (Dah!) - Gogol Bordello